Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

Follow up on grant deed

I have the original grant deed that was to transfer my father's real property into his living trust. It has a notary stamp. It is the original document because the ink on the notary stamp has a little smear where it got damp. If it was a copy there would not be a smear of ink. Anyway, there are no signatures on it. My father did not sign it and there is no signature from the attorney who drafted it either, but---- when I enlarged the document 400 times I see an indentation of the attorneys signature. I know he did not use disappearing ink so why is the indentation there? There is no evidence of my father's signature though. A blank space, not signed! I went to the recorders and saw the same document with my father's and attorneys signature on it. It is the same doc because I measured the notary stamp to different parts of the document and the angle of the stamp and everything is identical! FACT: this same property was gifted to me by my father on the same day he made his trust. I was vested in it for five years. My sister who played trustee after father died administered the trust and sold the property. She claimed that fathers attorney made a mistake and there needed to be a correction. The attorney will not comply to anyone without a court order. He also did not release my father's complete file to the successor trustee after father died. Before all of this mumbo jumbo I had a preliminary title report taken after father died and it reads that I am vested in property. Title company did this report. Where did they get the info to write report? I look into the records and cannot find my name anywhere on the property. For five years I was vested owner, how come there is no record of me being on property? If someone changed ownership of property shouldn't there still be a record of me being vested in property for five years before the change? I believe there was no trust and the property was mine all along. Thank you for all opinions.


Asked on 6/03/11, 5:24 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Anthony Roach Law Office of Anthony A. Roach

The big question here is whose deed was recorded first, your father to you, or your father to his trust? The deed to you would be the document that gave you record title.

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Answered on 6/06/11, 9:02 am


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